Our students enjoy a genuine immersion experience by living with Irish students in on-campus accommodation and taking courses at their host institutions. Because of our partnership with the Irish universities, we can cater for a much wider array of student majors than in a conventional international program, including Arts and Letters, Business, Science and Engineering. The result has been a tremendous explosion of interest across a wide spectrum - literature, history, art, business, anthropology, archaeology, politics, Northern Ireland, Irish language, biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics, chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering.
Our guiding principle is to avoid material easily accessible to tourists, instead engaging our students in activities in which Irish people themselves are interested. The Notre Dame brand, our web of connections, and the intimately-scaled program allow us unprecedented access. The city of Dublin and the country of Ireland are our classroom, and we prioritize T-Shaped Learning — immersed and experiential. We engage constantly with our students, nurturing their intellectual passions and encouraging them to pursue them in every way possible.
We design our cultural enrichment to dovetail with our courses: attending performances at the Abbey Theatre, field trips highlighting the Troubles in Northern Ireland and life in Connaught or Munster, experiencing Gaelic sports in Croke Park, and encountering Irish music and dance in the city and the country. We schedule weekly speakers in our Understanding Ireland series, and furnish our students with the necessary contexts beforehand to maximize the educational and cultural benefits.